Monday 12th March 2007

Why will Attheraces not come clean about the future of their ATRxtra service. Everyone that trades in-running wants this question answered. Atr are really pushing the line that their service is completely free of charge. We all have to pay for Atr via our SKY package and I would assume that some of that revenue filters down to Atr. If we gloss over this fact are Atr, and Matt Chapman in particular, saying 'You don't pay for the service so we will do what the French Connection we want with the service'. We all realise that there must be some sort of political game going on here, perhaps your betting partners are fed up of funding a service that is only of use to Exchange players, perhaps SIS has put pressure on you to stop the fast pictures, perhaps Atr can not afford to continue this service, or perhaps some sparky has pulled out the wrong plug and as yet no one has found which plug to put back into the socket, causing a great deal of embarrassment all round. None of these reasons matter to us your customers, all we want to know is 'Will the ATRxtra service be back and if so when'. You don't have to give away any trade secrets just answer the simple question. To not answer is an absolute disregard of your customers wishes. So I challenge Matt Chapman to tell the nation on his broadcast tomorrow the answer to my earlier question.

I have had so many comments on my blog and via email from people wanting this ATR situation cleared up. I know that people from both Betdaq and Betfair have also been asking questions directly of the ATR management, and both exchanges have been taking a fair amount of stick for not getting the answers. The blame surely has to be put directly to ATR.

Back to today's trading. The Sports Trader has made a loss today to bring to an end my brilliant winning streak. I traded on 8 horse races, 1 football match and 1 tennis match and I had 2 losing trades.

My first trade was in the 14:00 at Plumpton where I backed Netherley for £300 @ 1.50 before laying off @ 1.36. A little latter I backed him again for £137 @ 1.40 and laid this off @ 1.10 to result in a profit of £83.

In the 14:10 at Taunton I backed Noble Bily for £50 @ 1.80 and laid off @ 1.57 to give me a profit of £12.

The next was my worst result of the day and it was in the 14:40 at Taunton where I had backed Spidam for £382 @ 1.50 when well in the lead and going well with three fences to go, then his French temperament started to show and he all but refused to continue to race. I did have a lay up @ 1.18 but only got matched for £2 so I lost £380.  Although a big loss it really didn't get to me as this is just one of those things that will happen when trading.

My next trade was in the 15:30 at Plumpton and here I laid Bright Eagle for £218 @ 50.00,(proof as requested on the Betfair Forum Download screenshot.png ),as he blundered at a fence early in the race. On the run in  I backed Wenger for £160 @ 1.70 and just got beaten on the line, so I ended the race with a profit of £58.

I followed this with 4 small trades, one of which cost me a pound and the other three where all winning trades. I had finished my race trading with a loss of £222.

Later I watched the live football match between Burton Albion and Forest Green. I didn't have a trade until the goal was scored early in the second half when I backed the under 2.5 goals for £366 @ 1.55. I laid off £121 @ 1.40, £66 @ 1.42, £160 @ 1.41 and £20 @ 1.36 to leave me with a profit of £50.

I also had a quick trade on the under 1.5 goal market. With 4 minutes left on the clock I backed the unders for £68 @ 1.50 and laid off @ 1.24 about two minutes later to result in a profit of £17.

In the late evening I started to watch the tennis match between Rochus and Roddick. I only traded during the tie break of the second set and backed Roddick for £100 @ 1.15. I was looking to lay off @ 1.05 but the odds were moving all over the place and in the end I cancelled my lay as Roddick won the match to give me a profit of £15.

I have to take my metaphoric hat off to those that trade tennis, the odds change so much and so quickly. It always seems to me that you can never get a good value trade. But there appears to be plenty of people willing to trade early in a match at very small odds.

Well my day had finished and I have to report a loss of £140.

Comments

[kevin lydon]

beg my mates never to back ir as i reckon full of sharks with better connectins/pictures/commentarys
will there ever be a level playing field

[Adam]

I have found it impossible to bet in running. Those with SiS are taking the prices before we see anything. Yesterday as I was ready to back a horse, one of the market leaders fell, immediately pressed submit button, yes unmatched!!#

Its an absolute joke.

[traderpete]

Hi Ray
re: the ATR thing--I beleive that man at Sky has the power--I wouldn't be surprised to see a subscription service for ATR active suddenly appear.As you may know I have been in conversation with Virgin Media for some time now and thay say Sky won't issue them the liscence to use Atr active.I beleive ATR are in the 'pocket' of Sky--that's why they won't comment.As for 'the bronze one'---you don't listen to any of the claptrap that comes out of his mouth anyway do you?

Good luck mate

[Ray]

Hi Kevin,

It is possible to make money in-running without the live pictures but it's just so much harder to do.

Ray

[Ray]

Hi Adam,

I must admit you do have to be very fast but as you can see from my blog I do manage to get matched sometimes without the fastest pictures.

Ray

[Ray]

Hi Traderpete,

You are probably correct about SKY being the real problem. Most would not mind paying for a subscription service as long as the pictures are live. I see my blog entry has been put up on the Betfair forum so Matt will now definately see it, but will he respond?

Ray

[traderpete]

I wouldn't put much value in the guy's response anyway

[Ray]

Hi traderpete,

All I can do is keep asking the questions and hopefully one day we will get an answer.
Ray

[tomo]

your comment about bright eagle making a mistake at an early fence is wrong as it unseated at the first if you layed that a 50/1 you must have fast pictures as you would not have given that price in a 4 horse race

[Ray]

Hi tomo,

An unseating is a mistake, but I could probably of explained it a little better. Take a look at the screen shot link as there is no doubt that I did place the bet and get matched.
Ray

[Brian]

Hi Ray

Has Matt of ATR responded in any way as missed the prog this AM? Has Russ responded in any way shape or form?

Hope Chelters going well. Thought the Champion Hurdle was the oddest race with a new star outta nothing. I expect it to lose next time around as the others cant have been 100%

Best wishes

Brian

[Ray]

Hi Brian,
As far as I know there has been no response as yet. There has been plenty of debate on the Betfair forum about the subject with plenty of people still trying to blame the exchanges for not getting answers, but it is ATR/SKY/SIS that will not tell them anything.

Ray

[AndyP]

Hi Ray,

Isn't this just about ATR protecting their revenue from SIS subscriptions or am I missing some big saga/history? Unfair or not, if I thought I would be missing out on pulling in £6.5k subscriptions per year by giving it away free I'd be looking at my business model too!

You may have done this yourself but I phoned RUK yesterday and they said they have no current plans for having their own non-LBO real-time subscription broadcast service but were going to review it again this year.

If we can assume that ATRxtra is not coming back, it's either carry on as you are with slower pics, or get SIS for half the tracks and deal with the other half being slower, or what I'm thinking about is trying to sweet talk the local bookies into letting me stay there for the day if I buy a couple of coffee's an hour! Laptop and high-speed 3G card and I'm good to go!

Hope things are going well...

[Ray]

Hi AndyP,

How many SIS subscriptions are there for private individuals, very few. Most people would not even dream of committing to that kind of money. The bookies would still need SIS for all the rest of the services that they get.

I have been talking to SIS and have been told by them to hold off ordering for a while untill the future of all services is made clear. Good Luck.

Ray